*Please note this transcription was created using AI transcription software, and may not be a fully accurate representation of the conversation recorded during this episode.
Speaker 1 0:02
Health and Beauty products are a staple of our everyday life from the toothpaste we use as soon as we wake up to the deodorant we use after jumping out of the shower. Even the hay fever tablets many of us rely on at this time of year. We're spending hundreds of pounds and stuff that helps us look feel and smell good. But new research from which suggests you might be needlessly overspending on many of your everyday products. I'm Harry Kind, and I'm Grace Forell, and this is get answers for living your best consumer life.
Grace 0:28
When life gives you questions which get answers. We're joined in the studio by Sara Spary, a brilliant researcher here at which has carried out a really interesting expose, they have the wild variations in price that we see in a lot of common health products. Sara, welcome. Great to have you on here.
Sara 0:49
Thank you for having me.
Grace 0:50
So firstly, can you tell us about your investigation? What kind of led you down this path in the first place?
Sara 0:56
Well, actually, it was a bit of a selfish thing, because I just noticed as myself being a shopper that some of the products that I buy are frequently on promotion. So I had a chat with our editor here and we decided would be a good thing to look into. We wanted to find out whether or not health and personal care products are frequently on offer. And what we did is we looked at the top supermarkets and we also looked at boots and Superdrug, and we looked at the 13 best selling categories, from toothpaste to deodorants to find out whether or not the leading brands really were fluctuating like we suspected they were. And were they Yes, they were. So almost universally, actually, we found across the categories that there are like huge variations in price. So an example would be toothpaste. This is one of the products that I buy is often on promotion. So I wanted to see if the data bought that out, and it certainly did. So especially if you're going for more premium toothpaste brands, we found that you could end up paying double depending on when you shopped. So what we did is we looked at 1000s of prices across the retailers over a whole year. And we found that definitely toothpaste is a category that fluctuates a lot. deodorants was another one as were razors. And condoms actually came out as one that had wild price fluctuations almost universally across the board. There are some brands in all of these categories that fluctuate.
Grace 2:22
And what are we talking in terms of numbers here when we talk about these massive fluctuations? So
Sara 2:29
to use an example if we were to look at toothpaste, we looked at Oral be sensitivity and gum calm toothpaste and we found that that fluctuated at every single retailer that we looked at. So the retailers we looked at were Asda, Boots, Morrison's, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Superdrug, Tesco, Waitrose and Aldi and Lidl where the product was available. And we found that in the case of this product, it fluctuates between two pound 50 and five pounds, so you could actually pay double for that product if you bought at the wrong time. Another example was Colgate Max's white ultimate radiants toothpaste which is a more premium brand and that varied by 14 pound 20 at Waitrose, so we saw it on both 11 pounds and 25 pounds 20. absolutely wild variation. I mean, you really could be paying more than double in some of these cases. So it's definitely worth shopping around.
Speaker 1 3:26
Forget about the fluctuation that's like a crazy high price for toothpaste. Is it like a five liter tub?
Sara 3:32
No, no, no, it's just a standard toothpaste. But actually, at which we have done quite a lot of research into toothpaste and we do find that it's one of those categories that we have shown in our research previously, maybe some claims are overblown. So really, if you want to save money on toothpaste, you really just need to buy one that has fluoride in it. Other than that, you're probably just buying for preference.
Speaker 1 3:55
You know, I found an old witch magazine, I think from the 60s which was reviewing toothpaste and it was saying, I think you know what, regardless of which one you buy, it's definitely worth buying a toothpaste and really considering adding it to your routine. And I was just okay, well, that's good advice. You know, things have moved on. I'm glad to hear. Do
Grace 4:14
you think toothpaste is specifically badly affected by this error? No,
Sara 4:19
not at all. So we looked at 13 different categories and 39 brands over a whole year so we ended up looking at 1000s of price points. And we looked at toothpaste mouthwash deodorant razors, so shower gel shampoo, antacid sunscreen, painkillers, cold and flu meds and condoms. And I think there isn't a category in there that doesn't see fluctuations. Some products actually, were actually a bit more stably priced. I'd say that soap and shower gel wasn't too bad depending on which brand you bought. So if you were going for redock shower gel You would expect to pay pretty much the same price across the board across retailers across the year. The same with certain soap brands. So Carex and Palmolive. As well, we saw those being quite stably priced painkillers as well, we didn't see them fluctuate wildly, but actually, for almost everything else, we really did see some marked price increases. And I will just pull out example of condoms because we were quite surprised by this. So for direct real feel non latex condoms, we saw them costing both 11 pounds and 18 pounds 50 at Waitrose, and also quite well fluctuations for the same product at Superdrug and boots. So we saw a price difference from around five pounds depending on where they were on offer. So depending on how much you shop throughout the year, you could be spending upwards of 100 pounds more than you need to for sure. So like
Unknown Speaker 5:51
Valentine's Day,
Sara 5:52
do you know we didn't really notice any seasonal fluctuations for condoms? Are they you might expect actually, maybe they'd rack the price up at Valentine's Day. But no, we didn't see seasonal fluctuations with that product. We did though in some other categories. So one of those categories would be hay fever. So we saw that prices were most competitive over the summer months,
Grace 6:12
I find that really interesting because I would have thought that they pump the prices up when there's really high demand because you have no choice but to have to buy hay fever medication in the summer, whereas maybe they dropped the prices in the winter. And then you could like we could give a little hack where you stock up on on hay fever meds during the winter. But so that's not the case.
Sara 6:31
It's not the case. And I have to say I have the same hypothesis as you that's what I thought would be the case. But it's not.
Grace 6:37
Were there any other seasonal fluctuations with the other kind of toiletries and health products that you've spoken about? Yes.
Sara 6:43
So another example would be sunscreen, we saw more competitive prices over the summer months for that as well. And the same is true in reverse with cold and flu remedies. So you could find best savings in the winter months again when those products are more in demand. But actually, at which we would recommend if you want to save money, don't buy branded cold and flu medications, don't buy branded hay fever medications, it's really not something you need to do. You could save a lot of money just by buying a brand. So all you need to do is look for the active ingredient and make sure they're the same and you could save a lot so like in the case of hay fever medication, you'll generally find that the active ingredients either loratadine or sectra Xen hydrochloride
Grace 7:28
and what about different shops? Where would you say is the cheapest place to stock up on these kinds of Essentials, where
Sara 7:37
you might expect for us to perhaps say that the discounters Aldi or Lidl were cheapest. We actually couldn't include them for a lot of our research because they stocked so few brands. So for the purposes of looking at who's cheapest, we couldn't include them in that piece of research. But the cheapest retailer was Asda, where you found that they asked of all the other supermarkets had the cheapest price for these products most of the time. So as followed by Morrison's Superdrug, Accardo boots and Sainsbury's, then Tesco and Waitrose. So Waitrose was the most expensive for these products.
Grace 8:13
Well, some of you listening at home have been in touch to share how you approach offers at the supermarket. And Anita says she never buys non essential items at full price. She buys double when they're cheaper, and tops up when the deal comes around again. And he said her whole shop revolves around offers. And simply if it's not on offer, we don't buy it. So do you have any other tips around paying less for health products? Particularly if it's something you weren't necessarily expecting to have to buy? Yeah, definitely.
Sara 8:41
I love both of those approaches. I think they're great approaches to doing your shop. I think it's worth buying double. I think like a neater set. That's a good approach. The only thing I would say is be careful because if you're buying things like suncreen, actually, they have an expiry date. So generally after sort of six months to a year, you'd want to replace that. So don't double up on sunscreen this year and expect to use it next year. But outside of that, you can certainly stock up on things are on offer.
Grace 9:07
Well serviceberry Great to have you on. Thank you so much.
Sara 9:11
Thank you very much for having me.
Grace 9:16
Now we've got another witch expert on today. We've got Ellie Simmons, she's going to tell us why we're seeing prices changing so much and more shopping habits we can put in place to avoid spending unnecessary money. But
Speaker 1 9:27
first, what are the other tricks supermarkets are using to get us to spend more money? How are they using psychology against us? And is there anything we can do to avoid ending up much more out of pocket than we planned? To help us answer this I'm joined by Cathrine Jansson-Boyd. She is a consumer psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University School of Psychology. And she worked with brands and charities and consumer groups on understanding how we make decisions when we shop. Hello, Cathrine.
Hello. It can feel like at least when we're giving advice that everyone One is acting entirely rationally, and you know maximizing, like almost like a computer when they make any kind of purchasing decision. But it sounds like that there's actually a lot more emotion and nuance and a little bit of kind of, I don't know, kind of animal instincts that come into play when we're actually shopping. I don't know if I would compare it to
Cathrine:animal instinct. But yes, we are very influenced by factors that we don't actually consciously process. And often we underestimate that As consumers, we think we're savvy, we think we're irrational. But the reality is the way something is laid out, if you're thinking about a shop, the way it's laid out, will actually guide how we walk with don't think it does, because again, we're not thinking about it, we just kind of follow the structure. So it's very easy to get people to engage in physical settings, in particular, because you can use so many different aspects of an environment. And even things like auditory input will influence how you perceive something, you can really play around with it, and make it work beautifully to subconsciously influence how people do certain things. So
Speaker 1 11:11
what are supermarkets doing then in that kind of physical space to influence us,
Cathrine:it actually starts very much with the entrance. So when you walk into the supermarket, even how much you buy is controlled by whether you take a basket or whether you take a supermarket trolley. And the reality is that a lot of supermarkets now put their smaller baskets further away, so people can't be bothered going to get one. And that ensures they either take the big basket on the wheels, or they will grab a trolley because it's easier. And by having something that's a bigger size, it means you're more likely to fill it out because it looks more empty if you only put one or two items in it. And also, if you're pulling it along, rather than having something physical on your arm, which kind of gives you signals or weight, you actually think oh, well, there's not that much in there, it's, you know, you don't feel the heaviness. So you keep buying things until you have actually filled it out. So that's the very starting point of it, which is a very common and very basic trick of supermarkets.
Speaker 1 12:14
That's fascinating, because you do see, you know, wheel baskets more and more. And in smaller and smaller shops. It's not necessarily just for your convenience. But also, yes, you say I'm very happy to load up one of those baskets, because it's not digging into my elbow. So when you're kind of you've got past the baskets, you've maybe managed to select a smaller basket to keep your focus narrow, what might be the next thing that you would be encountering the supermarket?
Cathrine:Well, you would be encountering flowers, fruit vegetables, because they want to give a fresh impression. So by walking into something that we associate with freshness gives us the illusion that everything in the supermarket is fresh. Now, if you walked into something like a stack of canned goods, for an example, you wouldn't get that impression. And you're likely to purchase less, because we'd like to think that our food is generally fresh, because it's something we're going to consume. Again, this happens unconsciously, of course. But that increases the likelihood of you walking around more and actually buying or because you think things are good in there. So it's a very, very simple trick. And to keep that kind of freshness element going, they usually put red, and the scent of bread further back into supermarkets, you know, first impression is all between is fresh. And then as you walk further in, there will be a brand corner and often they pump out artificial scent that smells off baked goods. And people then continue to think, Oh, this is really fresh. So you kind of have those signals throughout. And it works really, really well because the things that are centered in particular, are very closely aligned with our memories. And our memories usually, or freshly baked goods is associated with childhood elements like it could be grandma baking or a parent baking. So we kind of think, Oh, this is lovely and makes it feels more relaxed. And again, the freshness elements, so we actually purchase more.
Speaker 1 14:13
Wow. So if you've got you know that that sensory perception of smell, you were saying before about a kind of audio input, what are supermarkets doing that
Cathrine:varied quite a lot depending on the supermarket and rather going into each one of them. I'll give you some examples. I actually went shopping recently in a very big supermarket and I got really confused. I could hear this bird tweets and I was thinking Hang on, where's it coming from? And I actually thought maybe there was a bird on the loose in the shop. I got really worried because it was so loud. So I kept looking around and I was concerned as incompetent and then I realized it was actually a tape at the entrance to make you feel more relaxed. So that was just to kind of slow down your pace on entrance to make sure you're not rushing through the doors, because that's one of the big problems with supermarkets is often you are in a rush. And whilst they can slow you down once you've got a bit further in that initial first 20 or so meters is very hard to get people to slow down.
Grace:So what's
Speaker 1 15:22
the kind of logic of placement when it comes to products on on the shelves?
Cathrine:Well, the most expensive one goes at eye height, which is for most people around 130 centimeters above the floor, slight variation. So that means that the middle bit of the aisle usually have the most expensive items. Because as you're walking along in the supermarket, you are spending a maximum and this is absolute maximum 20 seconds on every product category that you're purchasing. And that is if you really spending time thinking about it, most other are far below that. So you're not really thinking about what you're buying. So you're more likely to grab what's at I hide level. And that's why they put the most expensive ones there, because that means you're spending more money. Now the second most expensive ranges usually go above that, because we are programmed to kind of engage in a visual search strategy, that means we start in the middle I hide, we work our way up across, and then sort of back down again. And the last thing we look at is the kind of shelving along the floor. And that's why supermarkets tend to put their own ranges value ranges along the floor, because they don't really make any money on them. We
Speaker 1 16:44
did an experiment of trying to see how many value ranges were available in small shops versus big shops. And when I went to the big shops and was buying all the value ranges, as you were saying I spent my whole time scrambling around on the floor on these bottom shelves, often, you know, in the most inconvenient places.
Cathrine:I do know that people pay supermarkets to have their products positioned in some areas. A very good example of that Coca Cola, if you walk down most drink aisles and supermarkets, they will have blocked out a large chunk of it. Now supermarkets wouldn't kind of present their products taking up half an aisle unless they actually been sponsored to do so. And of course, by doing this kind of block element of an aisle, you know that people are going to buy it because there's very little alternative. I
Speaker 1 17:38
suppose if you're manufacturing, you can't pay to do something a bit more eye catching, you still have your own packaging to look more eye catching? Are there any tricks that designers use that will make them stand out on our on a whole shelf? We've looked a lot at health and beauty and those kinds of products and the promotions around them. Are there any tricks in those designs that can get you to buy,
Cathrine:there are a lot of tricks. So when designing items, you need to make sure that they have contrast to others, that this is a common problem in supermarkets that everything pretty much looks the same. Which means that they don't stand out, which means that people are going to grab the things they usually purchase. So if you actually want them to look for something new, you create something that is high in contrast, of course, this is very difficult to control for manufacturers, because if they don't know where their items are going to be displayed, it can be tricky. But novelty for an example, anything that's a little bit different tend to attract subconsciously, consumers attention, and they're very likely to go for it. Equally things that looks aesthetically pleasing. So just attractive items, we know that people generally purchase things that are more attractive than other items. So you can kind of play along with the whole of the aesthetics, as well as contrast and novelty. And that usually helps. But also which I have worked with manufacturers of various tea boxes on, we know that if you can create more of a texture on the box, so that it looks visually textures, that can also attract attention. Because a lot of consumers have a need for touch. They want to touch things, but they don't have time to do that in supermarkets because then you'll be touching everything and you will be in there for absolutely ever. But seriously, if you can actually do something that looks a bit more textured, then people are more likely to pick it up because it sends them cues that actually this feels a bit different. We've
Speaker 1 19:40
talked quite a bit about deals and mainly in store deals where prices are fluctuating all the time, whether that seasonally weather that seemingly at random. Can you talk a little bit about how I suppose our brain processes a deal Why does supermarkets do it and what is the psychology behind scenes? In this half price or with a big yellow sign on it that says on offer. So
Cathrine:on offer is a great thing for your psyche, because what tends to happen is when we see something that we think is good value, the part of our brain, which deals with pleasure is activated. So this actually generates a bit of an adrenaline rush, which means that we kind of feel like, oh, we have to have this. And if I don't buy this, I'm missing out, because this is a genuinely good deal. And supermarkets and most retail environments know this. So to have big signs saying to for one, or 50% off, or whatever it might be, it works. So so well. And the bigger the numbers are, the more we'll go. This is exciting, my brains telling me that I'm getting a really good deal. Of course, it doesn't mean it's a good deal. But because again, we're back to this, and it's very important. We are not rational when we're in there, because we're spending so little time in the shop. And on each product category, that we are kind of following rules of thumb, our brain is telling us one thing a body's activating adrenaline, that's got to be good. That's what we have going on. And again, very subconsciously, very instantaneously, you're not gonna think, Oh, let me sit down and have a think about is this rational, you don't you just grab it and go, and then the next offer, you have the same response. And what is actually quite phenomenal is that our brain is very fine tuned, because if we see something, we think all that's expensive, the part of our brain that is associated with pain is activated, which will make us back off. So this is why supermarkets need to make sure that proper offers seems to be real, because we almost instantaneously know when something is wrong. But we're also not so shrewd, that we understand the sort of genuine offers. If you like,
Speaker 1 22:12
Katherine, there's fantastic. Is there anything else you want to mention? But also, where can people read your research and find you online if that's what you want people to do? Well,
Cathrine:if people want to find me online, they can find me on LinkedIn, I'm always happy to connect with people have a bit of a chat, if you want to read more of a general broader aspect of it. I do blogging for Psychology Today. So that usually is the more easier, lighthearted side of consumer psychology, which people can definitely read a wide variety of elements on.
Unknown Speaker:It's been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us.
Cathrine:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 22:59
You're listening to get answers. If you want to get involved. Our next episode is looking at the Smart Tech with playing dumb, aka devices that have woefully short lifespans due to manufacturers no longer supporting them. Tell us your thoughts or send us in questions. Our email address is podcast at which dot code at UK we'd love to know if you've got any of these brick devices at home.
Grace:And you can also get in touch with us on social media. Of course, we're at which UK.
Speaker 1 23:24
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Grace:We're now joined by the fantastic Ellie Simmonds, Queen of crunching the numbers when it comes to supermarket prices. Ellie, what exactly is going on here? Why do prices fluctuate so much?
Ellie:There are loads of reasons why prices go up and down loads. But I think what it mostly boils down to is retailers wanting us to buy more stuff. And that could be for reasons such as the shops have got too much stock that they want to shift. It could be that they're trying to be extra competitive with their rival shops, you know, they've seen another shop, discount something and they want to be competitive on that. It could be to do with seasonality. And also I think in in loads of cases, discounts are just something that's baked into retailers pricing strategy. So there's a high price and there's a low price. And really the true price is probably somewhere in the middle of those two prices and their pricing strategy is that they have a higher price for a bid and lower price for a bit. And then they hope to make more sales presumably at the lower price. But some people will still buy at the higher price for a bit as well. But do you
Grace:know why some products are quite stable? I mean, Sarah mentioned like Palmolive, for example, tends to be quite stable through the year, but then you'll have toothpaste brands that go up and down wildly. So why are retailers choosing certain brands and products to fluctuate and keeping others stable?
Ellie:Some of it will be to do with the prices set by the manufacturer so so the retailers set the price says that they charge to consumers. But obviously they will buy products from manufacturers. And sometimes, some of that will be to do with how they buy the product from the manufacturer and what they pay for it. Others will be to do with seasonality and stock, things like that. It will just depend on the product, there'll be different types of discounts and different discounting patterns for different products. Because
Speaker 1 25:23
that was one of the weird things from Sara's research was that the seasonality is almost counter cyclical. But when you would have the highest demand, that's when you see lower prices, were almost the complete breaking the fundamental laws of economics. Yeah,
Ellie:I think that's really interesting. But I think another thing comes into play, which is competitiveness. So I think the fact is that during the summer months, everyone's trying to sell you some cream, and so prices will be competitive. But yeah, it does seem kind of counterintuitive. But then I think when you think about it, and get your head around it in a slightly different way, it does make a different kind of sense.
Grace:Um, what about price matching, because this is something we see a lot now in the supermarket. And it's certain products will say, you know, this is the same price as Asda, for example. But it is it's just very specific products. So if there's a competitiveness between supermarkets, why aren't all the products kind of price matched? Why is it just certain ones? Like what what impact do you think this is having on people's supermarket shopping?
Ellie:Well, I think you've hit the nail on the head really there because if they really wanted to match prices, then they would match them entirely. And it's actually Aldi that most supermarkets match to some more so much too little. But it tends to be Aldi. And to be honest, if I was alldis, boss, I would be laughing all the way to the bank, because what better advertising is there than all your rivals telling everybody that your prices are so good, that they're going to match a few of them? I mean, it's fantastic advertising and and when you think of it, it shows you how much more prices are at all the other supermarkets in general than they are Aldi and Lidl.
Grace:I suppose price matching, promos are an easy way to immediately compare prices when you're in the supermarket. But aside from that, do you have any other tips on how you can actually compare prices when you're walking around the supermarket? I mean, is it a case of you know, looking at a packet of pasture getting your phone out? And seeing how much it costs are all the different supermarkets? Or are there easier ways to do this.
Ellie:So I think the best advice really is to use kind of general tips to help you save money at the supermarket. And that's things like picking own label products, which generally are cheaper than branded items. Not being too taken in by deep discounts. Discounts are great on things that you're going to buy anyway. But if you're not thinking of buying nice things to start with, and you just see a good discount, then you'll probably end up putting it in your basket and you wouldn't have done otherwise, and your overall bill will be larger. I think it's also really helpful to have an eye on what generally is the cheapest supermarket and I've mentioned our cheapest supermarket analysis that we do every month already. But that always shows that Aldi and Lidl are the cheapest supermarkets and the others are more expensive. So I think that's probably one of the best tips is to know generally how expensive your supermarket is, rather than try and get hung up on the individual products.
Grace:Well, that's brilliant advice there. Really, thank you so much.
Ellie:Thank you.
Grace:If you're finding the stuff we're talking about useful. There are three really great newsletters I can recommend and they're all free. One is called the weekly scoop. It comes out every Friday and rounds up our latest advice and consumer news stories. The second is the money newsletter, which as you might expect has more of a money and personal finance focus. And we also have the food and health newsletter, which is monthly and focuses specifically on food health products and toiletries. We'll pop a link to the signup pages for these in the show notes. But you can also just Google which newsletters
Speaker 1 29:00
which approached all of the retailers involved in the fluctuating prices story to ask if they wanted to comment on the information about the health products that we mentioned. Boots, Superdrug and Waitrose told which that they aim to offer the best value to customers via a range of deals. The other supermarkets did not comment.
Grace:A spokesperson from Superdrug said we prioritize working with our suppliers to secure the lowest cost possible in order to offer the best price for customers. Our regular price promotions plus our additional members only prices ensure our customers can make savings on their favorite products across the year. We regularly compare prices in the market to ensure they're competitive and offer genuine value and savings.
Speaker 1 29:38
Waitrose said we are committed to offering great value and our offers are really popular with our customers. A
Grace:spokesperson from BT said we are committed to providing great value and unbeatable choice across a huge range of personal care products at booths. We offer a comprehensive program of deals and promotions as well as exclusive prices for boots advantage card members to help customers buy the brands they love for less As a reminder to get your questions into us for next time, we're here to help you get answers.
Speaker 1 30:06
Today's get answers was presented by me Harry Kind alongside Grace Forrell, produced by James Rowe and Adrian Bradley, and edited by Erik Bria. And thanks again to our wonderful guests, Sara Spary, Dr. Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, and Ellie Simmonds. We'll see you next time. Bye bye, bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai